I have come to the conclusion that Petsmart bettas have deteriorated over the past 10 years.
The last trio of girls I got have only lived about 10 months. They were little when I got them, grew rapidly, but have all died over the past 6 weeks.
When I originally bought them they were hard to get- especially the females but they did at least live for about 18 months. Not any longer- they are easy to come by but don't last too long.

Every fish I have bought from Petsmart hasn't lived past 10 days ??? I for one will NEVER buy fish from them again !!! Yes you can return them but come on really??? I will use the credit from the 3 I have to return Monday to buy toys for my dogs.

10 days ??
Really??
That is pretty bad and I feel sorry for the little fish who are dying much before their time. I wonder where the heck they are being shipped from and what poor treatment they are getting. Surely the breeder does not raise them to have them die so quickly.
I still take it as a personal failure when my fish don't get a full lifespan but i am coming to realize that the quality giving longevity to fish just is not there any more.

Petsmart fish are poor quality, but I have had them live for quite some time. At least for petstore fish. When fish pee, the ammonia dissolves into the water. When there's too much ammonia in the water, it burns their gills. Bettas can survive longer than some other fish with burned gills, but it really shortens their life spans. If you buy them out of dirty containers, expect them to die quickly.

Mousey I agree and its sad that after taking the time to choose which fish my son wanted, this happened to him. He has decided that he no longer wants fish but I understand. I knew better then to buy them and yet I did...

generally speaking the fish at my local petsmart are kept well. I have seen the bettas being cleaned when i go there and their water is never dirty unlike the petco store we used to have in town. I used to complain to the store manager about how they kept fish in particular.
Most of the staff at our Petsmart keep tanks and are fairly knowledgable-- a nice change to what I hear from a lot of people on this site.
However I do think that the breeders of the bettas must be inbreeding too much, or else the female bettas which I favour have a shorter lifespan than the males.
I was told at Big Al`s that female bettas sometimes suffer from being egg bound and that can shorten their lives.
makes sense I guess although I have also had a couple of male bettas fine one day and dead the next when still quite young. I have always put that down to misadventure on the fish`part- perhaps picking up and eating small snails but I am starting to wonder if again it is an inbreeding issue.
At one point, 10 years ago I had 13 bettas in my fish room and they all made it to about 18 months. I realize that is not old compared to what some people have said. I changed 100 % of water twice weekly and partials in between when I had them in unfiltered tanks but now i keep them in community tanks. Perhaps the stress of the other fish causes them to die sooner.

When fish are bred exclusively for color and are selected for breeding at a young age, a breeder may not even know if a strain is going to be short-lived. And fish kept in "ideal" conditions may never show any susceptibility they develop to environmental factors they may encounter once leaving home.

I also think that if a young fish gets its gills burned by ammonia, it may "outgrow" its ability to breathe. It reaches a size where it can't get enough oxygen for its body. Don't buy a betta in foul-smelling water. A slow-killing disease or internal parasite can also shorten a fish's life.

Of course, if all your fish are dying in a short time-frame, you could look for evidence that your water supply has changed or that a disease has infiltration your home.